sexton en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
- /ˈsɛk.stən/
Etymology
From Old French segrestien, from Medieval Latin sacristanus, based on Latin sacer (“sacred”). Doublet of sacristan.
Meanings
-
A church official who looks after a church building and its graveyard and may act as a gravedigger and bell ringer.
The whole village poured out to gaze on these Asiatic princes, for such the old sexton, who had in his youth been at Moscow and Constantinople, said they were.
1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 312:We stopped in the road and watched the sexton shovelling in the new earth. A peasant with a black beard and high leather boots stood beside the grave. The sexton stopped shovelling and straightened his back. The peasant in the high boots took the spade from the sexton and went on filling in the grave
1927, Men Without Women, Ernest Hemingway, An Alpine Idyll:on that same night, Mr Haredale, having strongly bound his prisoner, with the assistance of the sexton, and forced him to mount his horse, conducted him to Chigwell
1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 61.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC:
- A sexton beetle.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| sextons | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Coordinates
Deriveds
Sleeping Sexton · sextoncy · undersexton · sextonry · Sexton · sextonship · sextoness
Relateds
sacristanry · sacredness · churchwarden · sacrament · sacristy · sacristry
Synonyms
Translations (51)
mk кли́сар (church official) · de Küsterin (church official) · nb sakristan (church official) · it sacrestano (church official) · fr sacriste (church official) · cy torrwr beddau (church official) · it sagrestano (church official) · ru церко́вный сто́рож (church official) · es sacristán (church official) · fr sacristain (church official) · bg клиса́р (church official) · nn klokkar (church official) · sl cerkovnik (church official) · sl mežnar (church official) · ga cléireach (church official) · pt sacristão (church official) · ml കപ്യാർ (church official) · cy clochydd (bellringer) (church official) · de Sigristin (church official) · de Küster (church official) · la sēcrētārius (church official) · mk при́служник (church official) · sh sakristan (church official) · fi suntio (church official) · izh ponomari (church official) · ro pălămar (church official) · sv kyrkvaktmästare (church official) · de Sigrist (church official) · el νεωκόρος (church official) · pl zakrystian (church official) · hy եկեղեցու պահակ (church official) · de Kirchendienerin (church official) · be царко́ўны вартаўні́к (church official) · sk kostolník (church official) · nb klokker (church official) · ca sagristà (church official) · cs kostelník (church official) · el εκκλησάρης (church official) · tr zangoç (church official) · ru ри́зничий (church official) · ru понома́рь (church official) · hy գերեզմանափոր (church official) · sh crkvenjak (church official) · trc ró nuvií (church official) · nl koster (church official) · roa-gal bedaou (church official) · hy ժամկոչ (church official) · de Kirchendiener (church official) · ro paracliser (church official) · ro sacristan (church official) · hu sekrestyés (church official)